Terry Gilliam And Neil Gaiman Are Cooking Something Up Together... But What?

Both Neil Gaiman and Terry Gilliam were on the bill for the Capetown Film Festival this weekend. I’m sure that alone provides all the reason they need to sit down together for lunch, but it seems that when they went off to eat together, they did have something professional to discuss.

On stage for a Q&A at the fest, Gilliam admitted that he’s cooking up a collaboration with Gaiman. Nothing is final yet – Gilliam even said “maybe,” I believe – but seeds have been sown.

Gaiman was there watching Gilliam on stage and tweeted his own tease for their collaboration, at least if that’s how I should read the last sentence.

Snuck back into the CapeTown Festival to watch Terry Gilliam talk about 12 monkeys and his career. Strange things afoot.

I think he was reacting to the statement Gilliam made, not that he has any extra information confirming that his use of a capital G and O makes sense. I think that’s an assumption, and a faulty one.

Indeed, a friend of the site called Jerôme did a little detective work on our behalf and, while I don’t know if I can repeat the specifics, he found some real evidence that, while Gilliam is working on something unannounced at the moment, it isn’t an adaptation of Gaiman and Terry Pratchett‘s novel Good Omens.

Gilliam’s second opera for ENO, Benvenuto Cellini, will be staged from June of next year. This could keep him busy for a good portion of early 2014, and that commitment will have played a role in his choosing new projects.

I’m sure that once we know what he’s doing with Gaiman it will all click together – these jigsaws are so much easier when you have a picture on the front of the box. For now, though, I’m going to speculate that they’re working on something entirely new together.

Gilliam’s latest film, The Zero Theorem, is just completing post production now. Hopefully we’ll be able to see it soon. Meanwhile, Gaiman’s next episode of Doctor Who will screen on Saturday and his new novel, The Ocean at the End of the Lane, is set for publication next month.